Friday, December 15, 2006

An acronym for the ages...

We have all heard the saying...By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail...and it is true. But a more colorful and attention getting way to say this is simply PPPEPPR...But what does it mean?

It means when you have a deadline looming it is important to follow the creative process to work out potential problems before you waste time...it means to pay attention to the message and audience so the problem is answered correctly...it means you need to not find a solution but to find the best solution...it means it is important to budget one's time to allow for adjustments to the product...it means to be self-critical to cut down on obvious mistakes in design or technique...it means putting forth focused effort to produce quality rendered items instead of mindless scribbling...it means that you are on display and what and how you do something says something about you...perhaps in no other field are you truly so judged by your work...and by not doing these things you produce bad work that will result in redo's, poor grades, a bad reputation, extra stress, or even firing if you should be in that position. (I'm also a fan of 'if you don't have time to do it right the first time you obviously have time to do it again...but it isn't nearly as catchy...)

So what does PPPEPPR mean? Poop Poor Planning Equals Poop Poor Results...funny, I know...but TRUE...and unfortunately, we as artists can tend to be scatter-brained procrastinators...but by developing good planning skills (and it does take effort on our part to do this) the majority of issues can be resolved in a much more stress-free way, making our art more enjoyable for us and more visually pleasing for the viewer...